Economy
Why Are Cities So Vulnerable to Cyber Attack?
Cybersecurity expert Cesar Cerrudo predicted ransomware attacks like the one that paralyzed Atlanta’s city government. City leaders everywhere should understand this threat, he says—and how it could have been a lot worse.
For more than a week, one of America’s largest cities has been caught in a “hostage situation.” That’s how Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms described the crippling cyberattack from an infamous hacker group known as SamSam, which started last Thursday and has essentially forced an aspiring smart city to revert to pen and paper.
The cyberattack involved, among other things, hackers encrypting city files, locking access to online services, and blocking the city from processing court cases and warrants. (Emergency systems were unaffected.) To set it all free, the hackers demanded a ransom: $51,000 in Bitcoin.